That was equivalent to around a third of China's steel
production last year, not just of construction-destined rebar
but of every imaginable type of steel product.

And if that sounds like a lot of steel, consider the fact
that on March 10 this year trading volumes on the Dalian
Exchange iron ore contract exceeded one billion tonnes, more
than the combined annual output of Rio Tinto ,
BHP Billiton and Brazil's Vale.

OK. So there's an element of double-counting at work here
since Chinese exchanges tend to include both sides of a trade in
their volume figures.
Continuación...